Sherlock Holmes star Robert Downey Jr has another hero of detective fiction in his sights – legal eagle Perry Mason, the defence attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Last autumn it was announced that Team Downey – the Warner Bros-based production company that Downey Jr formed along with his wife Susan – was planning to resurrect the character made famous in the long-running TV series starring Raymond Burr for a big-screen reboot set in the 1930s.

Now it has been revealed that Marc Guggenheim (who co-wrote the recent Green Lantern movie) is in negotiations to write a script based on an original idea by Downey Jr and Team Downey president David Gambino.

Guggenheim is likely to call upon his previous work as an attorney when tackling the screenplay, having practiced in Boston before embarking on a writing career. His early scripts centred on the legal world in such TV shows as The Practice and Law & Order and he also co-created the court-based comedy drama Eli Stone.

The original Perry Mason TV series ran from 1957 to 1966, with Raymond Burr returning to the role that made him a star for a run of TV movies made between 1985 and 1993.